CROWN PROSECUTOR

WELLINGTON OFFICE

MR. W. H. CUNNINGHAM APPOINTED

The Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) announced last night that Mr. W. H. Cunningham, C.8.E., D.5.0., V.D., had been appointed Crown Prosecutor at Wellington in succession to the late Mr.. P. S. K. Macassey.

Mr. Cunningham, who is 52 years of age, was educated at Wanganui College. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1907 and as a barrister in 1912. For some time he was in practice in Wanganui. . On the outbreak of war Mr. Cunningham volunteered for service and left New Zealand with the Main Body. He served throughout the war, being promoted in March, 1916, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and to the command of the Second Battalion Wellington . Regiment. He was wounded at Gallipoli, was four times mentioned in dispatches, and receivec'. the award of the Distinguished Service Order and the Order of St. Stanislaus (Russian), Third Class, for his war service.

Mr.' Cunningham returned to New Zealand in January, 1919, and was appointed Crown Solicitor at Wanganui shortly afterwards, and continued as Crown Solicitor until February, 1929,' when he joined Mr. Arthur Luke in Wellington on the elevation of his partner, the Hon. Mr. Justice Kennedy, to the Supreme Court Bench. Since coming to Wellington he has specialised on the common law side of the profession. He has acted as adviser to the Hospital Boards' Association of New Zealand, the New ■ Zealand Dairy Board, and the National Dairy Association of New Zealand, Ltd.

Mr. Cunningham has been a member of the council of the Wellington District Law Society for the past five years, and last year he was president. He was honorary aide-de-camp to Viscount Bledisloe during his period of office as Governor-General in New Zealand.